No more new clothes

Today, on a whim, or maybe following some long-standing subconscious dwellings I have decided to stop buying new clothes.

This may sound a bit dramatic- it will, of course, be for a finite period of time, which I am yet to decide on. I asked my boyfriend how long he thought I could manage not to buy any new clothes for ” 4 months? 6 months? a year?” I said. “3 months then review” he said to me. So that’s what I plan to do. If I wasn’t driven before, I definitely am now, just to prove him wrong! To be fair to him- what is the poor boy supposed to think? For a few months now, every so often I have been coming home to him parading yet another new clothing purchase. “A bargain” I usually present them as. My clothing tasted are by no means lavish. Since moving near a Lidl I have purchased some thing from them, until I realised the quality was poor yet this wasn’t reflected by a lower price. So I stopped. I then moved to places like everything5pounds.com. A true bargain you may say, but although I have only placed two orders with them I have been severely underwhelmed by what has ended up being delivered many days later (despite paying in excess of £8 for “first class delivery”). This post is not supposed to slag off cheap clothing websites, they have their role and place in a girl’s (or boy’s) wardrobe. Unfortunately I found myself getting sucked into watching endless YouTube videos of these so called “hauls” from cheap clothing websites such as everything5pounds.com, pretty little things and boohoo. I have nothing against any of these, but I do have something against what I have ended up turning into. I have been sucked into a culture of mindlessly buying clothes, often because they’re very cheap for what they are, but sadly also to give me some short-lived joy. Since starting a new job I have found myself shopping more and more, to buy things to make me happy and I now realise ( of course I knew this before!) that happiness sought in this way is unhealthy!

So I have decided to stop buying clothes altogether for “3 months then review”. I mainly want to do this to prove to myself that I can. Of course to some it may not seem like a big achievement, I am not climbing Mt Everest or volunteering in an orphanage abroad for example, but for me this will be a meaningful and significant experience. I often wish I was born in a different time, back when clothes were seen as a luxury and people looked after the things they had because they worked so hard to get them. I don’t feel like that is what I do. I don’t give value to my items and although I keep buying more and more I never think I have anything to wear. I hope this makes me more appreciative of the things I have, and saves me some money along the way! And I hope that the 3 monthly review will make me want to continue.

I don’t want to associate happiness with material possessions, but that is unfortunately (mostly) my generation. I need to concentrate on getting happiness from my experiences and the people around me.

I will do a 3 monthly update (if I make it) but I hope that making this public will drive me to stick to it.